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August052017

The Tolga Bat Hospital: where adorable abandoned baby bats are wrapped in blankets and fed with bottles.

Normally
we associate bats with being blood-thirsty, but all these cute critters
want to drink is some bottled milk. About 300 bat pups are orphaned
every year because their mother is ill and can’t feed them or has died
from tick paralysis. These furry creatures are too injured to return to
the wild and need to be nursed back to health. Pictured at the hospital,
the black flying animals can be seen sucking on bottles, while they are
swaddled in colourful blankets. The bats can also be seen bathing in
the bathroom sink and even having their hair combed by workers at the
hospital. The Tolga Bat Hospital
in Atherton, Australia, is a community group working for the
conservation of bats and their natural habitat. The volunteers care for
bats who have come from hundreds of kilometres away in need for urgent
care. And they also take in bats for sanctuary after they have been
retired from zoos.

July262017

July252017

The Tolga Bat Hospital: where adorable abandoned baby bats are wrapped in blankets and fed with bottles.

Normally
we associate bats with being blood-thirsty, but all these cute critters
want to drink is some bottled milk. About 300 bat pups are orphaned
every year because their mother is ill and can’t feed them or has died
from tick paralysis. These furry creatures are too injured to return to
the wild and need to be nursed back to health. Pictured at the hospital,
the black flying animals can be seen sucking on bottles, while they are
swaddled in colourful blankets. The bats can also be seen bathing in
the bathroom sink and even having their hair combed by workers at the
hospital. The Tolga Bat Hospital
in Atherton, Australia, is a community group working for the
conservation of bats and their natural habitat. The volunteers care for
bats who have come from hundreds of kilometres away in need for urgent
care. And they also take in bats for sanctuary after they have been
retired from zoos.

Bats were “jammed” the moment they were about to home in on their insect prey, making them miss their target.

The rival that emitted the call was then able to capture and eat the insect for itself.

This is the first time scientists have witnessed this behaviour in one species - the Mexican free-tailed bat - a team reports in Science journal.

When bats swoop in darkness to catch prey, they emit high-pitched sound waves - a process called echolocation - which speeds up as they get closer to their target. This well-known skill is vital for them to hunt for food and to navigate their environment. This new research shows that others can effectively push them off their tracks mid-hunt.

Lead author of the work, Aaron Corcoran from Wake Forest University in North Carolina, was initially studying moths when he heard these bat calls.

"One bat was trying to capture an insect using its echolocation. The second bat was making another sound that looked to me like it might be trying to jam or disrupt the echolocation of the other bat," said Dr Corcoran.

"Most of the time when another bat was making this jamming call, the bat trying to capture the moth would miss", he added. …